This decade, there have been few artists to successfully follow in Morgan Wallen’s footsteps: embracing catchy melodic movements with simple lyrical schemes. Sure, there have been the vocal impersonators and the wannabe pop-country hopefuls carrying a quarter of the wit and an eighth of the persona, chasing a sound they can subliminally mimic, but neither quite own it.
Zach John King, however, is so far the exception. Walking through his latest release “I’m What You Get” feels like pop-country summer distilled into a single project of sunburns and open windows, celebrating life, love, and the pain that can exist in between. It carries the mixed-bag density and straightforward flesh of storytelling, similar to that embodied by Wallen’s “If I Know Me,” without hitting it entirely on the nose. It is more digestible to the common ear and less metaphorical, without becoming bland or boring.
To that end, the album makes it evident that Zach John King knows how to write a hook with a sticky melody underpinning it. The standout tracks remain the singles released in anticipation of the album. They command immediate attention by following a distinct melodic approach: heavy kick-drum bursts or pedal steel ringing. That said, tracks like “Shoulda Coulda Woulda” or “Whiskey Lying” fail to earn their keep due to this quality. Listeners were entrenched in these same tunes for months because of several singles released in the same vein.
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So, while throughout the album, you’ll find a range of story beats, from slower ballads to some with more production prowess, you might have to dig a bit for the former. Hence, this over-abundance of heart-thumping tracks accentuates the album’s lack of balance in its melodic range, with the instrumentals behind the counter remaining largely unimpressive. Punchy production strongarms acoustic simplicity, which becomes slightly repetitive, as the album is bound by primarily steel-guitar wails, strong kick-drum beats, and powerful electric guitar with little character in between.
Tracks like “Little Bit Stronger” are a rarity, carried by the fiddle and electric guitar before lighting into the record’s characteristic kick drum step melody as he compares the moving on between him and the girl who’s gone. By introducing more variety, ZJK would more successfully differentiate each upbeat track from the other.
It’s a shame, because behind the curtain of a southern drawl and stereotypical country-boy persona is an artist well suited to more somber tracks, patient melodies, and lower tones. “Beneath the Pines,” “Happy for You,” and the utterly magnetic “What I’m Giving Up” are impressive indications of his capabilities in range and intimate storytelling.
Throughout the three-year process of developing this record, ZJK may have alienated himself from ignorant traditionalists still clinging to the tired idea that country music reached its perfection somewhere between Toby Keith’s “Red Solo Cup” and David Allan Coe’s “If This is Just a Game,” and hasn’t grown since then. But the beauty of the genre has always been its willingness to branch out, to shift its approach to storytelling and rebalance the instrumentals holding it up. If bro-country once meant trucks, beer, and little else, King belongs to a new class of pop-country masters reviving that same sun-soaked bravado with something more thoughtful underneath it, big hooks paired with real reflection instead of empty swagger. This record leans into that growth, built on big, sweeping swings at the drum kit and electric guitar runs you’ll find yourself swaying to all summer long.
King has said before that he was raised on bluegrass and classic country, and that upbringing still shapes the tastes he carries today for indie and rock alike. While plenty of traditionalists have yet to expand their own mindsets towards him, this album could be the stepping stone that gets them there; “Chopping Wood” with Brent Cobb is exactly where to start. It’s the clearest example on the record of what those very traditionalists claim to want: simple storytelling and an even simpler melody.
Catchy music can be tasteful and nuanced too, and this album is living proof. It’s the same formula that carried artists like Wallen and Combs to the stardom they hold today. Zach John King is proving it can carry him there as well. This is a record that feels like summer days bleeding into summer nights: easy, warm, and impossible to shake. “I’m What You Get” should be Zach John King’s entrance into the greener pastures of selling out arenas as the main act, rather than just opening them.
